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Thursday, October 15, 2015

Peace Walk Arrives in Bath

Video by Regis Tremblay

It's getting late, I'm tired, my eyes are burning. I didn't sleep much last night on the floor of Quaker Meeting House in Damariscotta, Maine.

We walked just 10 miles today (sunny and cool with vivid fall colors) and arrived in Bath in time to deliver letters to the president of Bath Iron Works and to the local Machinists Union just before several thousand workers came streaming out of the shipyard at 3:30 pm. We had 19 folks lined up along the sidewalks with cameras, banners, and signs calling for conversion of the shipyard to building rail, solar and wind power instead of weapons of mass destruction. Our leafletter supreme, Morgana Warner-Evans, broke the record for handing out flyers at any protest I've ever been to at BIW. She plowed right into the middle of the workers as the rushed out of the yard and it was a pure joy to watch.

Afterwards we went to a local church and had hot apple cider and seasoned popcorn while we discussed the protest. We all felt the event was made even more special by the presence of two great banners made specifically for this walk - one by Russell Wray that many have seen attached to our walk van and the other by Artists Rapid Response Team (see above post of photos).

At one rest stop today a reporter from the Lincoln County News came and interviewed us. See it here

Maine VFP web master Dan Ellis tracked down other news reports about the walk from Belfast and Camden - see them here and here. A reporter from the Brunswick-based Times Record came out to interview us during the BIW protest this afternoon so we are looking forward to seeing it tomorrow.

Walkers get a well deserved day off on Friday and then on Saturday we resume walking from Bath at 9:00 am for Brunswick and a pot luck supper at the home of Selma & Hersch Sternlieb. All interested human beings are more than welcome to attend.

Some more walkers had to leave today to return home to work and others keep coming on board for the continuing trip south. We end in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Oct 24 with a march back across the bridge to the Naval shipyard in Kittery for our finale event.

Then we are having a walker reunion protest on Saturday, Oct 31 in Bath during the blasphemous 'christening' of another Aegis destroyer from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm. We are going to have music, poetry, speeches, and more that day under the Halloween theme "Something scary is happening here in Bath."